Editor’s Note: The annual Profile edition of The Cullman Times publishes Thursday. Today’s feature offers a glimpse at the types of local personalities featured in the section with details of their contributing roles and interests in Cullman County.



Much of the work that she does from day to day is thankless, taking place behind the closed doors of the Cullman Economic Development Agency (CEDA) or at the monthly council meetings in her hometown of Good Hope, but Susan Eller has built a life around the idea that staying busy and enriching the lives of others, whether or not one is recognized notwithstanding, is the key to happiness.

Eller, a self-proclaimed Good Hope girl, has spent her whole life in Cullman County and said that she never had any desire to move from her hometown.

"Growing up there may have been a time or two that I thought how cool it might be to live in some big faraway city," she said. "But I really never considered moving away from Cullman as a real desire. I love this community. And I think that I have always been too much of a momma and daddy's girl to really want to move away."

After graduating from Good Hope High School, Eller began a path to her current position at CEDA that helped her gain a true understanding of the multi-faceted richness that is life in Cullman County.

She began first working on her family farm, but decided quickly that working on the farm of a friend would be a more lucrative endeavor.

"My first real job, I guess, was taking what I had learned on my family's farm and putting it to use helping out on a friend's farm," she said.

Eller spent the time doing everything from working with livestock to digging sweet potatoes, all the while learning that the agricultural economy that so thrives in her hometown could not exist if not for the sweat drenched brows of an army of willing farmhands.

After finishing a degree program at Wallace State, believing all the while that she wanted to be an accountant, Eller embarked on another leg of the journey, which has led her to her position at CEDA.  She completed a number of summer work programs and landed a position at the Sport Center in Cullman, where she worked as the store's parts manager.

“This was probably my favorite job, if I hadn't had to worry about building a career. I probably would have stayed there forever,” Eller said. “I did stay long enough to negotiate a raise and a Sea-doo every summer, so I had a pretty good thing going there."

Eller said that some of her most fond memories of this time of life are of she and her husband Jim, who she will celebrate their 25th anniversary this August, is being able to take motorcycles off of the showroom floor for a Sunday ride every now and then.

In 1996 Eller applied for a job at the Cullman Chamber of Commerce, where she was hired to the position of tourism director.

“I got this job during the 1996 Olympics, right around the same time that Cullman had gotten Argentina's soccer team to agree to stay in our city for the event,” said Eller. “After the first day of setting up events and making everything perfect for our visitors, I realized that this was going to be a long few weeks. I came home that night and told my husband that I would see him after the Olympics were over.”

In 1997, after about a year and a half working for the chamber, the community had taken note of the dedication to promoting Cullman that Eller displayed — she was approached by Dale Greer of CEDA and offered a position where she would do just that.

When she took the position her duties fell in a number of areas, as the Duck River Dam project had just begun and economic development officials were in the beginning stages of a fight to make it a reality that would last nearly two decades.

“Working with the Duck River project has been a highlight of my career working in economic development,” said Eller. “I was here when we got the original permit, and have been excited with each step that we have taken over the years to make the project reality. Each time we won a lawsuit or made a step closer has made for a good day. Now we're in the final stages of the project and it is about time to move forward toward making it happen, we couldn't be happier.”

Eller has also enjoyed other aspects of the work that she does in economic development and said that each time CEDA is able to recruit a new industry, it is a career high point.

“It is a wonderful job to be able to welcome these industry leaders to Cullman and to show them around,” she said. “I get to visit different places throughout the county with these people showing them what our community has to offer — there are so many wonderful places in Cullman that many of us who have always been here take for granted. My position allows me to see these things each time I arrange a tour as if I had never seen them before."

Eller has seen the way economic development officials do their jobs change over the years with local, state and national economic conditions.

“When I first began here the economy was good,” she said. “The challenge in bringing industry was ensuring that there were enough people available to work the jobs that would be brought to the community, now as the economy is hurting the people are here, so we have to work to bring in the jobs.”

In order to make sure that the community continues to look favorable to industries searching for a location, Eller works alongside economic development and community officials to educate the community about different career options and education opportunities.

“Industry has become a very important source of employment,” she said. “And one of the things that we seek to do is to educate children and their parents about the changing face of modern industry. Many people still view industrial jobs as dirty back breaking positions, when in reality industry today means clean, safe working environments and usually very competitive salaries.”

As her daughter Sarah finishes her senior year at Good Hope High School this year and moves on to Wallace State with the ambition of finishing her degree at Auburn University to become a pharmaceutical sales representative, Eller continues to be dedicated to the young people of the community. They are, she said, the future workforce and leaders of the community — and it cannot flourish if they do not. Perhaps that is why she used her position on the Good Hope town council to lobby for new playground equipment for the children of that community.

"One of the best things that I have been a part of recently has been getting the new equipment on the playground in Good Hope,” she said. “It's beautiful, and it is great to know that because of something that I had the privilege of being involved in children will have a good, clean and safe place to sped sunny afternoons.”

Eller said that while industry recruitment, planning for growth in the community and helping to provide jobs in Cullman County are important, one part of her job at CEDA is always good for a thrill.

“I absolutely love the days that I get to go up the helicopter and take photos,” she said. “Not only is it fun, but it is just beautiful seeing the community from up there.”

When she isn't at work or volunteering her time First United Methodist Church, Eller said she enjoys grabbing a bite to eat at one of her favorite Cullman based restaurants or getting away from it all at the lake.

“My favorite place to be, if I have any time to just relax, is the lake,” she said. “There's nothing like being out on the water and just spending time with my family on a pretty day at the lake.”